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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 254 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Mrs Carnell in her speech referred to the comments of Ms Rees to the Stein inquiry. What did Justice Stein say? He said, "We will not look backwards; we will only look forward. We do not have the resources. We will not go back and look into those details of corruption". He refused to go back and look at the corruption, but still the Chief Minister attacks in this way. She says, "The spoiler throws as much mud as possible in the hope that it will stick", in relation to the allegation against public servants of corruption, insider trading and so forth. I have been through these quotes again and again, and that is not what you find in them, unless you are reading them in some jaded way for some jaded reason, and one cannot help wondering just what that is.

Another quote says:

Successive local governments have been intent on wrecking Canberra, pandering to a small coterie of vested interests in the development lobby, and looking after their political necks in the short term rather than giving any long-term commitment to the town.

That is Ms Rees responding to a comment on an article by Tony Powell, and this is supposedly an instance of where she is attacking public servants and calling them corrupt. It is just not there. Unfortunately, we have limited time, and I may have to come back to these quotes later, when the motion is moved. They start with this quote by Jacqui Rees in the Canberra Times of 10 December 1996:

It's just more of the same. Rebuilding Civic and urban infill is not going to create one permanent new job for a young person. The people have been duped and Canberra deserves better.

I would also question why the public consultation process outlined in the Inception Report and the Facing our Future paper has not been followed. It is a developers' charter, geared to undermining the values that people in Canberra treasure.

I have to say that that is mild compared to what I said in this place, and what Mr Whitecross said, about the so-called ACT strategy. That paper was just hopeless. There is more on the strategic plan being under fire. This is supposedly attacking public servants:

Far from being objective, the document is grovelling and self-serving ... a prime example of local politicians -

particularly the Liberal Party, because the plan was rejected by the rest of us -

being manipulative and the local public service having lost the skills necessary to serve the public.

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